Evasive Maneuvers
by The North Wyn
Summary: Steve is enjoying a very beautiful and peaceful morning, when he is most unexpectedly ambushed by Natasha. Things kind of...get weird from there.


A/N: Another AvengerKink fill. Full text of the prompt below the story. Oh, and stay tuned for a special bonus scene "after the credits." Hope you enjoy!

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Perhaps it was being frozen for seventy years, but Steve liked being outdoors. Outdoor cafes, outdoor markets, walks in outdoor parks, he loves it all. This particular morning he is reveling in the sunshine and locally-grown tomatoes at the Farmer's Market. It's a beautiful, _peaceful _morning and it's nice to have the biggest worry on his mind be which tomato to buy, at least for a while.

He is interrupted by someone grabbing his arm. He turns to see who it is and sees a flash of red curls in his periphery. Natasha's standing in front of him before he can so much as blink. In one quick and sure movement, she tugs him towards her, angling him to the right. She glances over his shoulder quickly. He turns his gaze to follow hers and manages to catch a glimpse of several armed men in suits headed their direction before Natasha turns his head towards her. Her cold left hand rests on his jawbone, pulling him even closer. Her right hand bunches in the collar of his shirt. He stares directly down into unreadable blue eyes.

Then her lips meet his.

The first emotion is a shock. A soldier is prepared for _everything_, but he doesn't remember this being covered in any handbook.

The second thought is far more human: _I hope I don't have morning breath._

And it's..._nice_ to be kissed. He hasn't been in so very long.

He isn't sure where to put his hands.

And he's _confused_, both by the unexpectedness of it all and by the feeling of her lips on his.

A kiss shouldn't have the ability to turn him into the unsure kid from Brooklyn (who'd barely been kissed and certainly _not like this_).

(He wishes he'd listened a little more carefully to Bucky's advice on what kisses say.)

A kiss shouldn't have the power for him to forget (even for a second) that he has been completely and unexpectedly ambushed by a co-worker.

And then...it's over.

Natasha pulls back and her eyes and expression are as unreadable as usual.

She tilts her head his direction with a small smile. "Thank you, Steve."

She squeezes his arm and runs back the direction she came. He stands still for what feels like forever, frozen in what he supposes must be shell-shock. He only comes back to himself when he realizes he has tomato juice running through his fingers. He looks down at the handful of tomato pulp guiltily.

He looks up at the girl behind the booth, who is now gaping at him, and asks, "How much for the tomato, uh, for a whole _pound _of tomatoes?"

He doesn't know how Tony got it (and he's pretty sure he doesn't want to know), but as soon as he walks in that afternoon, the screen starts playing his earlier moment of confusion with Natasha. He decides to make the best of it.

"I don't suppose you can identify the guys chasing her from that, can you?" He waves at the 30-ft-by-70-ft image of him and Natasha kissing with one hand.

Tony squints at the screen as Natasha runs past Steve, nimbly leaping past a distraught cabbage merchant. "I thought she was running because you were a bad kisser."

Make the best of it be hanged.

"You know, I could help you with that. Maybe give you some pointers..."

Steve sprints out of the room to find Banner to intervene, before he _accidentally_ kills Tony in a "training exercise."

-The End-

Full text of prompt, for the curious:

**"So, could I please get a short little thing where Natasha is undercover on a mission in New York and being chased by super-generic big-guys-with-guns when she sees Steve. She quickly runs up to him, tugs him over to one side and just starts kissing him without so much of a 'hi', or 'how's it going?', while he just kind of is like 'oh, hi Natasha, it's a nice day isn't it, oh you're kissing me okay'.**

**And then when the bad guys pass them and they've been gone for a few moments, Natasha just pulls away, says thanks and runs off.**

**I don't care if you include any sort of aftermath for this, or if they have significant others, but I just really want this scene.**

**+1: If Steve stands there for a minute after she runs off, completely dumbstruck**  
**+10: If they're not together while this happens**  
**+100: If Tony uses JARVIS to find the footage of this from street cameras and plays it over and over again whenever Steve walks into the room"**

* * *

BONUS DELETED SCENE:

Pepper sighs as she kicks off her heels and heads for the kitchen. A snack after a long day at the office sounded perfect. She trips on something in the dark and curses as she struggles to find her footing. Footing safely regained, she flips the light on and reaches for the offending object. What the—a _cabbage?_ Still holding the unexpected cabbage, she walks into her kitchen.

And stops dead in her tracks.

Cabbages. Everywhere. Every flat surface in her kitchen was covered with cabbages.

"Tony!"

It is not Tony who enters, but Steve. He takes one look at Pepper and the cabbages and blushes.

"Umm, I was at the Farmer's Market this morning and there were these guys chasing Natasha and anyway, they knocked over this poor cabbage merchant's cart and trampled his cabbages. I felt bad. I mean, that was his entire income for the day."

"Loverboy was distracted by Agent Romanoff's kissing."

Steve and Pepper turn to see Stark leaning against the wooden door frame of the kitchen, smirking.

(Steve thinks the way Pepper's face softens when she seems him is sweet. And Tony seems more at peace in her presence, somehow.)

The moment passes and Pepper's face wrinkles in confusion. "K-kissing? Never mind, I don't want to know. Steve, that was so sweet of you to think of the cabbage farmer, and I love that you did, but what are we supposed to with a whole _cart_ of cabbages?"

Steve shrugs awkwardly, "Make soup?"

"I'm going to go to bed. I want these all gone before I get up in the morning." She glances at both of them and then with a touch of her hand to Steve's arm, she heads for the door. "Good night."

Tony nods at Steve with a smirk, and says, "You heard the lady." He follows after Pepper.

Steve is very tempted to pitch a few at his retreating head. He _was _supposed to get rid of them, after all. That seems like it would qualify as a start.

-The End, For Real This Time-


End file.
